Lebanon is still sound place for investments despite the gloomy economic outlook around the world as a result of the global economic recession. This is one of the views echoed by a leading Arab investors; there is a growing agreement among many western and Arab financial analysts that Lebanon is one of the countries that managed to take full advantages of the crisis in the US and Europe. Properties in Lebanon and especially in Beirut are still seen as lucrative investments even in dark days.

Although Lebanon's real estate prices soared 50 to 60 percent on average last year, especially after the Doha agreement among Lebanese political factions, the sector remains undervalued and prices are expected to stabilize or even increase slightly as demand is likely to grow amid favorable political and security conditions; this would ensure a more balanced equilibrium between supply and demand in coming months.

The country's resilient, liberal and open real estate sector has been witnessing a quasi-continuous demand from residents, a growing number of returning expatriates, and foreigners - mainly Arab nationals. Real estate sales' values and construction permits grew 17.6 percent and 12.6 percent on average respectively over the past five years, according to the study. "The sector has been relatively shielded from the spillovers of the global financial crisis that hit peer Arab reality markets; real estate sales almost stabilized in the first five months of 2009 while construction permits witnessed a 4.3 percent yearly growth.

The sector's resilience is derived from the fact that demand is truly driven by genuine need for realty and not for speculative purposes and thus the country was not suffering from a real estate bubble similar to the one witnessed in prime Gulf markets.

RED House Lebanon

RED House Lebanon was founded in November 2004 with the ambitious objective of being one of the main gates of the Arabian Gulf Investment Gate towards the Lebanese Market.

In 2005, RED House carried on with its first project IBC – International Business Centers as a Chain of exclusive and advanced offices buildings in the MENA region with excessive services and amenities and creating and interactive business community. Created the project concept, conducted the required market studies, selected the appropriate location, find the land, negotiated the land acquisition, structured the project financials, secured the required equity (fund raising – Saudi & Lebanese Private Investors), negotiated and agreed on the required bank loan (HSBC Dubai - Amana through HSBC Beirut), negotiating and appointing the Architect (ERGA Group) and succeeded to find a number of clients based on a presale strategy.

The project was envisaged to be the initial phase of IBC towers; 5 towers spreading over the most vibrant cities in the Middle East at time: Beirut, Dubai, Jeddah, Cairo and Amman.

The intended Strategy was to launch the 5 towers as 1 project within the Launching of IBC tower in Beirut (summer 2006) and to promote the project to other developers and investors accordingly.

With the unfortunate incidents of 2006, the RED House operation in Lebanon was paused hoping the country will sooner regain its stability.